From the Book

Introducing the Lightroom interface

The following screen shots provide a quick overview of the Lightroom interface, which you’ll find provides a consistent layout design from one module to the next. One of the new features in Lightroom 3 is that the side panels’ auto show/hide behavior is not quite so sensitive as it was previously. This means if you overshoot with the mouse, you are less likely to reveal the side panels by accident. Unfortunately, it has so far only been possible to implement this interface refinement on the Mac version.

Lightroom menu bar

As with any application, the main menu commands are located in the Lightroom menu bar at the top of the screen (Mac) or at the top of the document window (PC). If you are in absolute full-screen mode, the menu bar will be hidden, but it can be revealed by simply rolling the mouse to the top of the screen.

The top panel section contains the Identity Plate, which normally shows the Lightroom logo. But you can customize this via the Lightroom → Identity Plate Setup menu. For example, you can replace this with your own name or add a company logo graphic. On the right, you have the module selector menu for selecting the Lightroom modules. The Library module is where you preview and manage your catalog collections. Develop is for processing images. Slideshow enables you to output image collections as on-screen presentations. The Print module is for making prints, and the Web module allows you to generate Web sites and upload them automatically to a specified FTP server. You can use the F5 key to toggle showing and hiding the Top panel.

The content area is the central section of the interface where you can view the photos you are working on. In the Library module Grid view (shown here), you see the images displayed as thumbnails in a grid cell layout. In the Library module Loupe view and Develop module, the photos are displayed at a fit-to-view or 1:1 scale size. In the other modules—Print, Slideshow, and Web—you can see previews of how the images or screen pages will look before you output them from Lightroom.

Whenever you are in the Library
module Grid view, the Filter
bar can be made to appear at
the top of the content area.
This allows you to carry out
matching text searches using
the Text search section, or search
by rating or flag status using
the Attribute section. Or, you
can use the customizable panels
in the Metadata filter section
to search for photos using various
search criteria, such as a specific
date, camera type, or lens type.
You can use the Shift key
to display more than one Filter
bar section at a time and use
the \ key to toggle showing and
hiding the Filter bar.

A Toolbar is available in all of the Lightroom modules and is positioned at the bottom of the content area. The Toolbar options will vary according to which module you are in and can be customized when you are in the Library or Develop module via the Toolbar options menu (circled). You can use the T key to toggle showing and hiding the Toolbar.

In the Library module, the left
panel is mainly used for selecting
the source photos via the Catalog,
Folders, or Collections panel.
In the Develop module it is used
for the Presets, Snapshots, and
History panels, and in the remaining
modules it is mainly used for
accessing preset settings and
collections. For example, if
you are working in the Develop
module, you can save custom Develop
settings as presets, where they
can be readily applied to other
images. The individual panels
can be expanded or collapsed
by clicking on the panel bar
header. Alt–clicking
a panel bar toggles expanding
to show the contents of that
panel only or expanding to show
all panels. You can use the Tab key
to toggle showing and hiding
both the left and right panels.

The right panel section mostly
contains panels that provide
information about an image, the
controls for adjusting an image,
or the layout control settings.
In the Library module, you can
manage the metadata settings
for the currently selected photos,
and in the Develop module, you
can apply image adjustments.
In the Slideshow and Print modules,
the right panel controls govern
the layout and output. As with
the left panel, individual panels
can be expanded or collapsed
by clicking the panel bar header. Alt–clicking
a panel bar toggles expanding
to show the contents of that
panel only, or expanding to show
all panels. You can also use
the Cmnd key (Mac) or Cntrl key
(PC) in combination with a keypad
number (0, 1, 2, 3, etc.) to
toggle opening and closing individual
panels in the order they are
listed from the top down.

The Filmstrip is located at the bottom of the Lightroom window. It contains thumbnails of all the images currently displayed in the Library, highlighting those that are currently selected. The Filmstrip thumbnails are accessible in all the other modules, which allows you access to individual images or sub-selections of images without having to switch back to the Library module.